


Left feet

by BadRomantic



Series: E.J. / Ricky : Act One [2]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: CHAPTER TWO TAGS:, Carlos needs a break, E.J. is a homie, EJ is NOT a homie, M/M, Soft Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), but we forgive him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22641121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadRomantic/pseuds/BadRomantic
Summary: Chapter 1Choreography is a punishment designed by sadists, Ricky's sure of it.But... if it's EJ leading helping him out, it's not that big of a deal, he supposes./ / /  /Chapter 2EJ's plan is going pretty smoothly, if he does say so himself.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/E.J. Caswell
Series: E.J. / Ricky : Act One [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1627795
Comments: 8
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

Ricky loves theatre, but the choreography Carlos is making him learn is impossible. He _knows_ it’s impossible because Gina can do it and Gina’s standards are “do the impossible.”

So. It’s impossible.

“One, two, three— no, you’re skipping count three.”

“I did the turn…” Ricky said, awkwardly repeating the turn he was supposed to take to face Gabriella, “and then I do the hand thing, right?”

“No.” Carlos huffed, probably because this was the fourth time he’s had to correct Ricky, “You do the two-step first, then hold out your hand, and then lead her up on top of the table.”

“Why is she even going on the table?” Ricky asked just to buy himself more time to memorize what Carlos said, “Who stands on tables?”

“Chad, you, Gabriella,” Carlos counted off on his fingers, “Taylor.”

“Okay, I get it.” He mumbled, trying out the two-step and then held out his hand, “Like that?”

“Well… it looked a little stiff.”

“I am stiff.”

“Get unstiff.”

“Um…”

Carlos sighed loudly, making a motion with his hands that reminded Ricky of an explosion, or when his mom got really mad at the stove for not cooking correctly. Now that he thought about it, maybe his mom was just mad at his dad and not the stove during all those failed dinner nights.

It made him feel a little sicker than usual.

“Sorry.” Ricky said, trying to search for a way to help, “I could ask Nini to help, maybe? I wouldn’t mind practicing with someone.”

“No.” Carlos shook his head, “Nini’s learning too and having two people learning together could end in trouble. Remember last year with Tiana and Naveen during the spring play?”

Ricky nodded despite not knowing anything at all. Who’s Tiana? Who’s Naveen?

“Then you get why I don’t want you accidentally crushing Nini’s toes under a steel boot.”

“Well… Big Red?”

“Can Big Red dance?”

Ricky thought about it, “I don’t know, actually.”

Carlos made a face, like he was contemplating it, and then his eyes jumped to the side of the room and he lit up like a christmas tree. “EJ! Perfect!”

 _EJ?_ Ricky thought, following his eyes and sure enough, EJ had entered the theater with a heavy backpack hanging off his shoulder. 

“Hey,” EJ lifted a brow and dropped his bag, “am I too early?”

“Nope!” Carlos rushed forward, scrambling with his papers of choreography notes and thrusted them into EJ’s chest, “You are just on time! Help Ricky learn how to dance like Troy.”

“Is this new? Oh. It's the dance with Nini.” EJ looked through the papers, then peered at Ricky through his peripheral vision, “How long has he been practicing this?”

“A few days,” Ricky said, because it felt weird to just stand there while they talked about him as if he wasn’t there, “I guess I’m stiff.”

“Two left feet, huh?”

“Hey, this isn’t like freestyle dancing! This is weird _one two four six_ stuff.”

“You skipped two numbers in that!” Carlos exclaimed, then shook his head and pointed at EJ, “You need to help him. He has no idea what’s going on.”

“I can teach him everything in ten minutes.” EJ said with such confidence it had Ricky growing excited, “Just give us some time and silence.”

“Can do! Practice is in 30 minutes. Thanks, EJ.” 

And Carlos was gone. Ricky wondered what to do now. He and EJ stared at each other, then EJ set the papers down on the piano in the corner of the stage. 

“Nini asked me to help her with this same dance, so don’t worry.” He said, “I basically have your part memorized now.”

“That makes one of us.” Ricky said, “So… um… how’s life?”

 _“Please_ don’t make awkward small talk.”

“Okay. Right. Focus on the dance, right?”

“Right.” EJ wasted no time in getting awkwardly close, “Let’s skip your worse part, which is the turn, right?”

“No, it’s the two step thing. I keep forgetting it.”

“Oh.” EJ frowned, which had Ricky a little self conscious, “Ok, then... skip that. Let’s just work ahead and then work the worst part last.”

“Why’d you make that face?”

“No offense, but the two step is the easiest part of this dance.”

“Not for me!” Ricky looked down at his feet, “It feels unnatural. Like skateboarding on dirt roads.”

“You skateboard often now that you’re in the play?” EJ asked, demonstrating the two step and Ricky copied it.

“Wrong side.” “Oh, oops.”

He tried it again, and EJ smiled. “Nice job.”

“Thanks.” He felt just a bit better about his confidence now, “And yeah, I still skateboard. I used to do it all the time after school but now I do it when my dad’s out at work or trying to find new hobbies. He recently took up a gym membership, so we’ll see how that goes.”

“How often is your dad out? Hold out your hand— Other hand— and then lead me to the table.”

“Got it. Every other night, usually. He’s back by ten or nine but sometimes he comes back really late, like at twelve. He’ll always text me, though, so it’s cool.” 

While Ricky led EJ up the table, he realized quickly that EJ was pretending to be Gabriella and he was pretending to be Troy. It was a little exciting, but Ricky couldn’t place why, just like how he couldn’t place why he was excited to finally call EJ a friend.

“How’s that?” Ricky asked.

“Good. Just don’t touch Nini with a sweaty hand and you’ll be golden.”

Ricky tore his hand out of EJ’s hold, quickly rubbing it clean on his jeans, “Sorry.”

EJ laughed, climbing off the table, “You got the moves down while Nini does her thing on the table?”

“Um… I know there’s, like, three turns?”

“Two. There’s three other sequences and then you get to improvise.” 

“Yikes.” Ricky breathed out.

“Hey,” EJ reached a hand up, squeezed him on the shoulder and shook him slightly, “you’ve got this.”

He appreciated EJ’s confidence in him. He especially appreciated being able to know the difference between EJ’s aggressive punch in his shoulder versus his encouraging grab. It’s _nice_ being able to go to play practice and not have to worry about feeling someone's eyes on him, or have EJ’s looming presence around him.

“You should be Troy, y’know.” Ricky said, which EJ responded to with a shocked tip of his head. It sorta reminded him of a puppy. “You just… know your way around the scene. The theater, I mean.”

“Yeah?” EJ asked, looking both nervous and relieved. He smiled, yet it didn’t quite reach his eyes the way Ricky would have liked to see, “Well… I think you’d make a great Troy too, ok Ricky?”

“Thanks…!” Ricky practically beamed, a thrill racing up his spine like no other.

“But you still got to work on that choreography.”

“Yessir.”

Ricky was so thrilled about having EJ’s belief that he didn’t realize he said _you’d make a great Troy_ and not _you will make a great Troy._ By the time he realized that, though, he was battling Big Red in a game of Super Smash Bros. When he won the match, the thought slipped from his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ricky's never seen the princess and the frog and it shows


	2. Chapter 2

Let’s be real. EJ doesn’t _hate_ Ricky. Why would he? Ricky’s kind.

Well, not kind enough to leave him and Nini alone. Not that it was Ricky’s interference that led Nini to break up with him, it was his own stupidity for stealing her phone and going through it. The last straw for him nearly became Ricky cutting his lip open.

If he was honest, he was genuinely ready to let Ricky have it. Nini broke up with him just hours before after he apologized and he was having a bad day, but then Ricky walked in all pitiful and just kept wholeheartedly _apologizing—_ it was ridiculous. 

EJ was furious one second and when he met Ricky’s eyes he wasn’t, which just confused and irritated him all over again because he’s only seen that type of sincerity from Ashlyn or Nini. 

So _sue_ him for thinking he might be able to get back together with Nini by becoming Troy. Thankfully, Ricky wanted him to be friends; it’s the perfect opening. If he can slip Ricky some messed up sushi or something, he can totally get him sick for opening night just like he did for Nini.

But then they kept _talking._ Ricky likes to chatter, he noticed it the first few practices after Ricky busted his lip. He’d make painful small talk and no matter how many times EJ reminded him _not_ to do that, he just kept trying.

“How was your day?” 

“Small talk, Ricky.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. Uh… my day was pretty cool! I got an A on my history test. That’s thanks to Big Red though…” and off Ricky would go.

If EJ was honest, it’s hard to pretend to be interested. It’s even harder to pretend to not be interested while pretending to be interested. He found himself _liking_ to listen to Ricky, to hearing him talk about his day, how "awesome" Big Red is, or how "awesome" the theater kids are.

One thing EJ loves about Nini is her ability to be so kind and optimistic… and Ricky has her beat tenfold.

He’d say these things, which wouldn’t seem like much at first, but then EJ would think about it days later and realize how much it made him feel better. Like the time EJ got told off by Nini before practice when he tried to talk to her.

When she stormed off, it was Ricky who got to him first before his cousin Ashlyn could.

“You okay?” Ricky asked.

“Peachy.” He mumbled.

“... Anything I can do to help?”

EJ looked at him and Ricky made a face like he knew he misstepped. 

“I mean… Look, uh, Nini’s got a way with her anger sometimes. You just need to let her have time to process whatever happened between you two. She works really good like that.”

“Why are you helping me?” EJ asked, because it was a fair suspicion to have. Ricky might just be trying to win back Nini again, which he would not allow. 

“This _—”_ EJ motioned between himself and where Nini went _—_ “serves you, doesn’t it?”

Ricky looked sick for a second and EJ genuinely thought he finally caught him in his devious ways. “No, man. I don’t want you two to _fight._ That’s… no, look, just let her think it over, okay? Like, let it go for a week and ask her to talk again afterwards. Nini’s _really_ smart, so she likes to figure out why she’s hurt by something before she forgives and accepts it. Y’know? It took her forever to forgive me after I cut off a piece of her hair. I thought it was a girl thing at first, but then I found out it was because I did it without her permission. I let her get even with me by shaving a part of my head and it was third grade so it didn’t matter anyway but… you get what I’m saying.”

EJ stared at him, mostly because that was a lot to take in and yet so simple of a message that he had a little hope for it. Besides, Ricky looked honest and EJ knew when he was lying or nervous because he’d stammer and pause to give his brain time to think.

EJ appreciated how easy Ricky was to read.

“Give her time.” He echoed.

“Yeah. Time.” Ricky rocked his heels, “Um…”

 _Here it is,_ EJ thought, _Ricky’s "I'm overthinking" stammer._

“I’m not really after Nini anymore, EJ. Like… she’s cool, I’m cool, we’re cool.” Ricky nodded, as if he needed his own self assurance for his statement. “We’re cool. I told you I’d work on, uh, whatever was going on with me last week in that bathroom, remember?”

“Yeah.” EJ stared at him, a thrill working up his spine.

“Well, I did, and I’m… cool, now.”

“You’re… cool?”

Ricky’s ears turned red, “Yeah, I’m cool.”

Just seconds later Carlos rounded them up, telling them there was an important announcement, and just like that their conversation was over. 

EJ thought about what Ricky said for a long while after practice ended. About his help with Nini, but most importantly the fact that Ricky apparently wasn’t interested in breaking them up anymore. 

Speaking honestly, that means he will not have to compete with Ricky anymore, which eases a good deal of tension out of his friendship with him. He didn’t like pretending he _wasn’t_ worried Ricky was going to underhand him somehow, and with this confirmation that Ricky was _“Working on himself” …_ It felt a little nice to be free around him.

He _likes_ being free around someone. Around Nini, he didn’t have the luxury of being completely himself. He usually reserved that privilege for Ashlyn and the more time he spent with Ricky practicing dancing and chatting over lunch break, the more he began to open up to him.

So it was only logical he asked Ricky to go out to eat some sushi _—_ Sushi that EJ triple checked, thank you very much, because he was not going to let Troy get sick _now._

Not after he started liking the guy.


End file.
